چکیده انگلیسی

A trait approach was compared to a social cognition approach in predicting discomfort in a laboratory social interaction. The relationships of trait shyness and actual-own/ought-other (AOO) self-discrepancy with multiple aspects of discomfort were evaluated. Results from a canonical correlation analysis showed that the overall relationship between these two predictors of shyness and criteria of discomfort was significant. Partialled multivariate tests of trait shyness and AOO discrepancy revealed that both predictors of shyness were uniquely related to discomfort criteria. A comparison of these analyses revealed that subjective anxiety and negative self-statements made the strongest contribution to trait shyness, while positive self-statements made no contribution. In contrast, both positive and negative self-statements made moderately strong contributions to AOO discrepancy as did the other measures of discomfort. The findings suggest that a social cognition approach is viable in predicting discomfort related to social interaction. Implications for theory and research are discussed.

مقدمه انگلیسی

Recent research suggests that basic personality traits (e.g., the Big-five) are formed by early adulthood and can account for meaningful variance in predicting social behavior (Asendorpf & Wilpers, 1998). Presumably, personality traits are the result of early emerging temperament differences that result in stable individual differences (Caspi, 1998). In turn, as the person interacts with the social environment, these individual differences become associated with more adaptive or less adaptive social behaviors.
In contrast, cognitive–social learning approaches to personality (e.g., Mischel, 1973) posit that social cognition processes and structures are particularly relevant to our understanding of how personality relates to social behavior. This approach has focused on cognitive variables such as self-schema (Markus, 1977) and self-discrepancy processes (Higgins, 1987 and Higgins, 1989). Self-schema are acquired knowledge structures about specific aspects of the self (e.g., independence) that facilitate social information processing relative to encoding and retrieval (Markus, 1977). Self-discrepancy processes, on the other hand, focus on the relationship between discrepancies in various types of self-beliefs and particular negative emotional states. More specifically, actual–ideal self-discrepancies are hypothesized to be related to dejection emotions (e.g., depression), whereas actual-ought self-discrepancies are hypothesized to be related to agitation emotions (e.g., anxiety).
Buss, 1980 and Buss, 1986 defines trait or dispositional shyness as anxious self-preoccupation and behavioral inhibition in social contexts due to the prospect of interpersonal evaluation. Proponents of trait approaches to shyness (Asendorpf, 1989; Buss, 1986) cite research supporting the inherited and learned origins of childhood shyness and its likelihood of creating significant and lasting problems in social interaction. Also, trait shyness can be distinguished from low sociability, which entails a preference for not wanting to affiliate with others (Cheek & Buss, 1981), and from introversion which entails a focus on solitude and internal mental events but with the ability to interact comfortably when one desires (Briggs, 1988). In contrast, cognitive–social learning approaches to shyness have developed from social psychological models of social behavior such as Schlenker and Leary’s (1982) self-presentational model of social anxiety. Cognitive–social learning approaches are less focused on individual differences in shyness and are more focused on the cognitive structures and social cognition processes that are related to the experience of shyness (Leary & Kowalski, 1995).
Research on the relationship between trait shyness and social interaction shows that shyness is associated with multiple types of discomfort and inhibition. When conversing with an other sex stranger, shy in contrast to nonshy individuals report more negative self-statements, greater subjective anxiety, increased physiological arousal, and behavioral signs of anxiety, such as, gaze aversion (Bruch, Gorsky, Collins, & Berger, 1989; Garcia, Stinson, Ickes, Bissonnette, & Briggs, 1991). In particular, the relationship between symptoms of anxiety and shyness holds true for both self and observer measures of anxiety. Furthermore, it is important to note that the substantial direct relationship between shyness and discomfort in social interaction holds true despite the discovery of possible mediating and moderating variables (Baron & Kenny, 1986). For example, several of the authors recently tested a mediated model of men’s interpersonal competence (Bruch, Berko, & Haase, 1998) in which shyness, traditional masculine role beliefs, and physical attractiveness were postulated as antecedent variables and emotional inexpressiveness was postulated as a mediator of these antecedents in predicting interpersonal competence. Results showed that although emotional inexpressiveness mediated the relationship between shyness and interpersonal competence, there was still a sizable direct relation between trait shyness and interpersonal competence. Also, attempts by the authors to explore possible moderating variables (e.g., sociability and sociotropy) have generally produced negative results, that is, no shyness by sociability interactions, but mainly direct effects between shyness and correlates of discomfort (Bruch et al., 1989; Bruch, Rivet, Heimberg, Hunt, & McIntosh, 1999).
Despite the apparent relevance of cognitive–social learning approaches to shyness, there is little research that has attempted to link specific cognitive structures or variables to indices of discomfort in actual social interactions. Research on self-discrepancy theory is a case in point. According to self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987 and Higgins, 1989), there are at least three types of self-beliefs important to understanding negative emotions: the actual self––which is a person’s representation of the attributes the person believes he or she actually possesses; the ideal self––which is a person’s representation of the attributes that self or others would like the person to possess; and the ought self––which is a person’s representation of the attributes that self or others believe the person has the duty or obligation to possess. This theory also postulates that people hold ideal and ought self-beliefs from two points of view: their own and from the perspective of other people.
The primary purpose of the present research was to compare a self-discrepancy methodology as a type of cognitive–social learning approach to a trait methodology approach to shyness in predicting various aspects of discomfort during a laboratory social interaction. Most attention to Higgin’s theory has focused on how two types of self-discrepancy differentially relate to the negative emotions of anxious and depressive affect. Specifically, self-discrepancy theory hypothesizes that actual/own: ideal/own discrepancies are uniquely related to depressive affect, whereas actual/own: ought/other discrepancies are uniquely related to anxious affect. A number of investigations that tested this differential hypothesis (Higgins, 1989; Scott & O’Hara, 1993; Strauman, 1989; Strauman and Higgins, 1987 and Strauman and Higgins, 1988) have been supportive showing that each type of self-discrepancy is only associated with its relevant emotional state (although see Tangney, Niedenthal, Covert, & Barlow, 1998 for contrary results).
The actual/own: ought/other self-discrepancy (AOO) while hypothesized as relevant to a variety of agitation emotions (e.g., anger, resentment, as well as anxiety) seems particularly relevant to shyness and social anxiety. Higgins (1987) describes the AOO discrepancy as related to perceptions that negative outcomes will be forthcoming because the individual’s actual attributes differ from the attributes that others (e.g., friends) feel the person should or ought to possess. Consequently, this self-perceived violation of the duty to possess characteristics that are important to others increases vulnerability to feelings of fear of punishment and apprehensiveness.
It is interesting to note that the self-beliefs involved in the AOO discrepancy are similar to the beliefs that appear to underlie fear of negative evaluation which is a chief component of shyness. Fear of negative evaluation is defined as apprehension at the prospect of receiving disapproval or critical feedback from others (Watson & Friend, 1969). According to Buss (1980) it arises from parental over concern about the opinions of others, which leads to sensitizing the child to the belief that other people will scrutinize his or her behaviors. As a result, the shy person comes to believe that other people hold standards for his or her performance that they cannot match due to their low social ability (Wallace and Alden, 1991 and Wallace and Alden, 1997). Thus, the potential relevance of the AOO discrepancy to shyness is that the actual-ought self-guide may reflect the difference between the shy person’s perception of his or her own attributes and the performance standards the shy person believes that others hold for him or her because of the attributes they should possess.
The purpose of the present study was to compare the relevance of the AOO discrepancy to trait shyness in terms of their combined and unique association with particular aspects of discomfort during an interaction. Although Strauman (1989) and Strauman and Higgins (1988) found that the AOO discrepancy was related to self-reported social anxiety but not depression, and related to a diagnosis of social phobia but not a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, there is no research that has evaluated whether the AOO discrepancy is related with indices of discomfort that occur prior to, during and after a social interaction (e.g., subjective experience of anxiety).
The present study incorporated several features to provide for a more sensitive test of the relevance of the AOO discrepancy to indices of discomfort. Recently, Higgins (1999) discussed a number of factors that may influence the likelihood of finding a relationship between a particular self-discrepancy and its relevant emotional state. Two of these factors were addressed in the current study. First, self-discrepancy theory postulates that the greater the accessibility of a particular type of self-discrepancy the greater the probability that it will be associated with various aspects of its relevant emotional state (Higgins, 1987 and Higgins, 1989). According to Higgins (1999) one way to increase accessibility is to prime particular self- discrepancies. In the present study, accessibility to an AOO discrepancy was primed by instructing participants to list actual self attributes and ought other attributes that reflected social and interpersonal characteristics rather than general attributes and characteristics. Use of domain specific rather than general attributes to create self-guides has proven effective in previous research (e.g., Szymanski & Cash, 1995).
Second, according to Higgins (1999) a particular self-discrepancy is more predictive when its applicability and relevance to a particular context is heightened. Presumably, one way of heightening the meaningfulness of a self-discrepancy is to expose participants to actual situational stimuli that may fit the particular self-discrepancy in contrast to stimuli such as printed descriptions of hypothetical situations which should be less salient. In the present study, participants were exposed to an actual situation which required them to initiate a conversation with an other sex peer who was a stranger. Russell, Cutrona, and Jones (1986) found that shy persons rated situations involving initiation of a conversation with a stranger of the other sex as the most anxiety provoking type of situation.
Finally, the present study examined the covariation of trait shyness and the AOO discrepancy with three components of discomfort that are common to shyness (Bruch et al., 1989). These components included: cognitive self-statements, anxiety indicators, and self-presentation strategies relative to an interaction. As previously mentioned, research has demonstrated that shy in contrast to non-shy persons report more negative and less positive self-statements and evidence higher subjective, as well as observer based, ratings of anxiety. Relative to self-presentation, Arkin, Lake, and Baumgardner (1986) have argued that shy persons seek to avoid disapproval and, thus, adopt self-protective strategies in their interaction (e.g., act cautiously, create a “safe” impression). Nonshy persons, in contrast, seek to gain positive social outcomes and, thus, use acquisitive approaches (e.g., direct and appropriate attention-seeking responses). Consequently, Arkin et al. (1986) predict that shy persons will report greater use of self-protective strategies and less use of acquisitive strategies in order to avoid disapproval.